Friday, October 30, 2009

Bucket List

Although I’ve been telling people I’m 55 for about six months, it wasn’t official until my birthday this past Monday. While I don’t really mind it, how the heck can I possibly be this old already? It wasn’t that long ago that I was playing with the plastic James Bond Attache Case that could shoot rubber bullets! Sheesh!

Tempus Fugit! (Time Flies - for you non-Latin speakers.) Time is kinda like the guy in that old Abbott & Costello movie. The one that scares the crap out of Lou just by slowly saying, over and over: "Slowly I turned; step by step; inch by inch!" The more it happens, the crazier Lou becomes. Time is kinda like that. The more it happens, the crazier I get. Mostly cuz I know I could die at any moment and I still have more than a few things on my bucket list. Such as . . .

* Seeing Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in concert

* Visiting Scotland, Wales and Ireland

* Going back to Israel

* Visiting a couple of other countries in the Middle East (Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt.)

* Living abroad doing something worthwhile like working for an aid organization or a ministry of some kind.

* Getting an MDiv degree from Fuller Seminary

* Touring the White House

* Going to a live taping of Saturday Night Live

* Seeing the Red Sox play in Fenway Park

* Seeing the Seattle Mariners in the World Series

* Going to an NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four where the Oregon State Beavers are the Cinderella team that wins it all.

* Writing a novel

* A date with any of the following future ex-wives: Amanda Peet, Lauren Graham, January Jones, Danica Patrick, Betty Nguyen and of course, Erin Andrews.

* Retiring to a cabin in the woods where it snows a lot in the winter and is warm in the summer.

* Retiring to a condo in the big city where music, food, books and major leagues sports are all within walking distance.

* Retiring to either of the above locations with one (or more) of my future ex-wives.

* Living somewhere closer to where my kids live.

There are probably others but I’m really old and tired and can’t think of any more right now. Time for a nap . . .